What It Takes To Be Fired by CNN

CNN has joined the New York Times and the Washington Post (along with the perennially hysterical MSNBC) in the front rank of the Resistance to America’s duly elected government. Cranking out over-the-top anti-Trump propaganda is mostly what the network does these days.

But even at CNN, there are limits. First the network fired “comedian” Kathy Griffin from what was apparently her only CNN gig, co-hosting the network’s New Year’s Eve show. Griffin’s offense, as we all know, was displaying a model of the president’s severed, bloody head. Given the magnitude of the offense, finding a new New Year’s Eve co-host didn’t seem like much of a price to pay.

Now CNN has brought down the hammer again. It has fired Reza Aslan, who hosted a CNN series. Aslan has a degree, among others, from Harvard Divinity School. Divinity isn’t what it once was; his offense was this tweet about President Trump:

So maybe publicly calling the president a piece of shit is a bright line for CNN.

Then again, maybe not. Aslan’s Twitter feed is one long rant against President Trump. Aslan tweeted last September:

CNN didn’t seem to have a problem with it then. And, as the Free Beacon has pointed out, Aslan’s Twitter feed has long been filled with such references, directed to the president and to Republicans. This famous one related to Todd Akin, a GOP Senate candidate:

More recently, Aslan tweeted this scatological attack on the president:

Translation: "I will piss on America the way I had prostitutes piss on your president and there's not a damn thing you can do about it" https://t.co/QrAdm8DnI0

So Aslan has been behaving this way repeatedly and for a long time. After CNN announced that it wouldn’t be renewing his program on religion (!) for another season, Aslan issued an apology in which he said:

In these politically charged times, the tenor of our nation’s discourse has become complicated. And I recognize that CNN needs to protect its brand as an unbiased news outlet.

If CNN ever had a brand as an unbiased news outlet, it was gone a long time ago.

Meanwhile, one is left to ponder: is Reza Aslan a raving lunatic, or a typical Democrat? Or both?